The diagnosis and treatment of patients with cancerous tumors is an ongoing area of investigation. Medical devices for obtaining tissue samples for subsequent sampling are known in the art. For instance, a biopsy instrument now marketed under the tradename MAMMOTOME is commercially available for use in obtaining breast biopsy samples.
Various imaging techniques including X-ray, MRI, CT, and ultrasound imaging may be used with biopsy devices for use in acquiring one or more tissue samples. It can be desirable to use an image guided, percutaneous biopsy instrument which is vacuum assisted, such as the MAMMOTOME device, to acquire multiple tissue samples without removing a biopsy needle between samples.
The following patent documents disclose various biopsy devices and are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety: U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,862 issued Aug. 14, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,522 issued May 15, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,055 issued May 8, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,462 issued Sep. 19, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,544 issued Jul. 11, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,230 issued Jun. 20, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,316 issued Jan. 25, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,497 issued Dec. 28, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,469 issued Nov. 9, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,716 issued Oct. 12, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,164 issued Jul. 27, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,333 issued Jul. 7, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,086 issued Jun. 23, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,547 issued Jul. 22, 1997; U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,822 issued Jun. 18, 1996; U.S. Patent Publication 2003/0199753 published Oct. 23, 2003 by Hibner et al.